Mrs. OGG and I recently enjoyed a week in Miami, courtesy of a lot of Marriott points (and about 120 gallons of mid-grade gasoline).
Florida was the first state to go shall-issue way back in the 1980's, so I was curious to see what it was like to carry there.
We left the house disarmed for the drive through Maryland, of course, but well-armed with printed state law PDF's from Handgunlaw.us,* not to mention two 10mm Glocks, my Glock 42 in .380, and my wife's beloved S&W 340PD loaded with .357 Magnum. All of these guns fit snugly in the locked compartments of my center console, which came in handy in South Carolina... but this is about Florida.
Florida handles concealed carry... by not worrying about it. At all. We saw no signs 'banning' firearms (they wouldn't have force of law, anyway) at stores, restaurants, malls, movie theaters, airboat tours, or anywhere else we went. I wore my Glock 29 in a Safepacker everywhere we went, with the Glock 20 in the center console of the Dodge. Nobody cared.
We only saw one sign that even
mentioned firearms, and that one was at South Beach:
Since this sign was posted by the city of Miami Beach, we presume it had force of law. However, thanks to Gary Slider and Handgunlaw.us,* I was able to translate that sign: 790.06 is the law that regulates concealed carry permits, so the sign simply means "No firearms, unless you have a permit." Since Florida bans open carry, that's the same law that applies everywhere else! (Thanks for the reminder, though).
In conclusion:
We like Florida. Too bad it's so hot.
*It's about time we set up a "fundraiser thread" to support Handgunlaw.us. As I've promised on this site, we will be sending a donation soon. Anyone who can't wait can go here to pay our share of the considerable & rising cost of providing & maintaining this important resource.
